Acceptability, reliability, referential distributions and sensitivity to change in the Young Person's Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE) outcome measure: replication and refinement

Abstract

Background Many outcome measures for young people exist, but the choices for services are limited when seeking measures that (a) are free to use in both paper and electronic format, and (b) have evidence of good psychometric properties. Method Data on the Young Person's Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP‐CORE), completed by young people aged 11–16, are reported for a clinical sample (N = 1269) drawn from seven services and a nonclinical sample (N = 380). Analyses report item omission, reliability, referential distributions and sensitivity to change. Results The YP‐CORE had a very low rate of missing items, with 95.6% of forms at preintervention fully completed. The overall alpha was .80, with the values for all four subsamples (11–13 and 14–16 by gender) exceeding .70. There were significant differences in mean YP‐CORE scores by gender and age band, as well as distinct reliable change indices and clinically significant change cut‐off points. Conclusions These findings suggest that the YP‐CORE satisfies standard psychometric requirements for use as a routine outcome measure for young people. Its status as a free to use measure and the availability of an increasing number of translations makes the YP‐CORE a candidate outcome measure to be considered for routine services.

Effectiveness of school‐based humanistic counselling for psychological distress in young people: Pilot randomized controlled trial with follow‐up in an ethnically diverse sample

“…The primary outcome measure was the Young Person's CORE (YP‐CORE). This is a self‐report measure of psychological distress in young people (Twigg et al ., , ) and the most commonly used outcome measure in secondary school‐based counselling in the UK (Cooper, ). Young people are asked to rate their psychological distress on ten items using a five‐point scale (0–4), giving a total score between 0 and 40, with higher scores indicating greater levels of distress.…”

“…Young people are asked to rate their psychological distress on ten items using a five‐point scale (0–4), giving a total score between 0 and 40, with higher scores indicating greater levels of distress. The YP‐CORE measure has been shown to be acceptable to young people, with a good level of internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .85; Twigg et al ., ), test–retest stability (Pearson's r = .76, Twigg et al ., ) and a differentiation between means for clinical and non‐clinical samples (19.0 [ SD = 7.5] and 9.4 [ SD = 7.3], respectively, Twigg et al ., ). For the present sample, the internal consistency at 12 weeks was α = .82.…”

“…These studies found that it was feasible to test the effects of SBHC, with the acceptable levels of recruitment and retention. In addition, on the primary outcome measure of psychological distress (YP‐CORE, Twigg et al ., , ), meta‐analysis gave an estimated effect size for the SBHC intervention of 0.59 (95% CI 0.16–1.01) at 6 weeks from baseline and 0.82 (95% CI 0.30–1.35) at 12 weeks from baseline/end of therapy (Cooper, ). Methodological limitations were that there were no indications of follow‐up outcomes beyond the 12‐week endpoint, and ethnic backgrounds of the participants tended to be relatively homogenous (70.7–97.7% White European).…”

Interpersonal Counseling in the Treatment of Adolescent Depression: A Randomized Controlled Effectiveness and Feasibility Study in School Health and Welfare Services

“…The YP-CORE is a commonly used, 10-item measure for the assessment of clinical change among young people within counseling and treatment settings. It has been shown to possess good psychometric properties, to be reliable and sensitive to change, and it is well accepted by young people (Gergov et al, 2017;Twigg et al, 2015). It assesses subjective well-being, psychological symptoms and problems, overall functioning and social interactions, and risk of self and others during the previous week.…”

Avatar-based counselling for psychological distress in secondary school pupils: pilot evaluation

“…At baseline, 28 participants (51.9%) were experiencing clinical levels of psychological distress, as defined by the Young Person's CORE (YP-CORE, Twigg et al, 2016).…”